Batman Forever, Part Four

Welcome to Batman Forever, a weekly review of “Batman Eternal” from DC Comics.

I’ll look at the weekly comic every time for a short review and a prediction as to what comes next. And, as a special treat, I’ll reproduce one panel from each week’s comic with some of the many action figures I have laying around.

Here we go!

Batman Eternal #4 WHUNK WHUNK: Batgirl throws down! In anger over her father’s arrest and denial of bail, Babs punches Batman in the face and even fights with a judge. Batman confronts Falcone, Jim Gordon is sent to Blackgate and Stephanie Brown is in trouble.

Batgirl is in an angry state of mind, and it’s pretty awesome to see her smash up some Professor Pyg goons. She even gets the drop on Batman.

That little scene was fantastic, and I enjoyed the calm confrontation between Batman and Falcone.

This issue was pretty fun even though it has some writing inconsistencies.

Jim Gordon gets sent straight to Blackgate, and I have no idea how they’re going to write around the fact that he should get shivved the first day. It’s the most dangerous prison in the world and everyone including the warden and the prisoners hate him. Is Matches Malone gonna get show up and protect him?

Stephanie Brown is in danger, and that’s exciting, but I don’t know how she fits into this story at all. I think they need to ramp up her story a little bit. I’m just not that interested yet.

I also get that this installment is trying to pound home the Batman/Batgirl drama, but the evidence that Batgirl brings up and goes after seems to be exactly the stuff Batman should have already found. And when Batgirl identifies Batman’s hypocrisy about giving villain beatdowns, it’s so spot on that the writers of this issue should have stopped and rewritten a few of these parts.

Next Week: Batgirl does indeed find some evidence to help exonerate her father, but he’s feeling so guilty that it’s going to be tough to help him. Gordon’s cellmate turns out to be a violent offender. Rookie cop Bard teams up with Harvey Bullock to learn the Gotham streets

A one-liner will explain how Falcone kinda/sorta came back from the dead.

Next week’s cameo: The Batboat. (Yeah, I said it.)

Was I right? Last week, I said that Batgirl and Batman would butt heads over solving this case, especially with Barbara’s dad at the center of it. Penguin calls in some favors to fight against Falcone. Falcone doesn’t change out of his stupid Affliction-style rose shirt. Good cop Lt. Bard gets offered a bribe.” I also predicted Catwoman would come back and The Spectre would reveal himself.

Batgirl and Batman butt heads so hard that she punches him. Twice. Penguin is only mentioned by name, and Falcone finally dons a tuxedo. Bad doesn’t get bribed, but he does get threatened. No mention of The Spectre, but Catwoman makes an appearance (sort of) when Falcone touches his cat-scratched face and recalls old times.

——————————–By night, Kevin Coffey fights crime as a masked vigilante. By day, he’s the music critic for the Omaha World-Herald, Dungeon Master, lover of the Muppets, husband and father. He also enjoys making snide comments during movies (his wife has asked that he stop, but he refuses). Read his musings on Twitter (@owhmusicguy), music reviews and previews at Omaha.com, and bloggy stuff at his blog, Rock Candy.